Tom Odell
(Picture: Rory Langdon-Down)“I get so excited when new music comes out each Friday,” Tom Odell exclaims as we sit down for coffee in his east London studio. Today, when we meet, the excitement comes with a sense of pride: the deluge of new music includes twelve tracks from the Ivor Novello-winning singer-songwriter’s latest album, Best Day of My Life. A far cry from the anthemic ballads that propelled him to stardom in 2012, Best Day of My Life is a minimalist masterpiece, and the singer’s most intimate work yet.
The title is a red herring - the new album, like its predecessor, Monsters (2021), is overwhelmingly sad. “When people ask me why I make sad music, I’m always a bit confused,” Odell admits. “How can anyone right now be making anything else?” The flurry of upbeat records released since the end of the pandemic would suggest that some people are in need of more escapist fare; but Odell has always been an unfailingly honest lyricist.
